Born in 1881 in Montreal, entrepreneur George Washington Kendall – better known as George Kennedy – served as the Canadiens’ second general manager from 1910 to 1921.

After the team was sold to him in 1910, the Canadiens changed their uniform colors from blue to red. In 1914, Kennedy adopted a new team logo that consisted of a red “C” on a blue band, with an “A” inside the “C”, in honor of the Club Athletique Canadien, which he founded in 1908 to promote sporting events in Montreal. During his sixth season as the team’s general manager, the Canadiens won their first Stanley Cup by defeating the Portland Rosebuds in the 1916 Final. Kennedy awarded a $238 bonus to each of his players for the championship.

The following year, Kennedy once again changed the team’s logo to what would become the Canadiens’ trademark, replacing the “A” with an “H” for hockey. The influenza epidemic of 1918 did not spare Kendall, who contracted the Spanish Flu. He never fully recovered and ultimately died of the disease on October 19, 1921 at the age of 39. His widow, Myrtle Kendall, subsequently sold the Canadiens for the amount of $11,500 to a group of businessman composed of Joseph Cattarinich, Leo Dandurand and Louis Letourneau.